Lafayette, nous voil?!

 

Lafayette, nous voil?!
--
Lafayette, we are here!
--
Charles E. Stanton, an aid to General John J. Pershing in an address before the tomb of Lafayette (4 July 1917). Pershing is often credited with the remark, sometimes upon arriving in France with the American Expeditionary Force, but he himself stated: "Many have attributed this striking utterance to me and I have often wished that it could have been mine, but I have no recollection of saying anything so splendid. I am sure that those words were spoken by Colonel Stanton and to him must go the credit for coining so happy and felicitous a phrase."

 

Gilbert du Motier Lafayette

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Nous n'arrivons pas ? changer les choses selon notre désir, mais peu ? peu notre désir change. La situation que nous espérions changer parce qu'elle nous était insupportable, nous devient indifférente. Nous n'avons pas pu surmonter l'obstacle, comme nous le voulions absolument, mais la vie nous l'a fait tourner, dépasser, et c'est ? peine alors si en nous retournant vers le lointain du passé nous pouvons l'apercevoir, tant il est devenu imperceptible.

 

Marcel Proust

 

Tenez, voil?, dit-elle, ? chacun une écaille.
Des sottises d'autrui nous vivons au palais :
Messieurs, l'huître était bonne. Adieu. Vivez en paix.

 

Nicholas Boileau-Despreaux

 

Nous nous croyons purs tant que nous méprisons ce que nous ne désirons pas.

 

Marguerite Yourcenar

 

Lafayette avoided the factions jealous of Washington because he recognized that Washington was the Revolution and that should he be reduced in power or replaced, the whole cause would collapse. ... Washington was a shrewd judge of character and never would have warmed to Lafayette if he had been only a superficial ingratiating romantic.
Lafayette scrupulously looked after his men, spending his own money when Congress failed to provide them necessities. Nor was he backward in suggesting to Washington certain changes and innovations from French military practice.

 

Gilbert du Motier Lafayette

 

La souffrance! quelle divine méconnu! Nous lui devons tout ce qu'il ya de bon en nous, tout ce qui donne du prix ? la vie; nous lui devons la pitié, nous lui devons le courage, nous lui devons toutes les vertus.

 

Anatole France